hi there. i'm aaron.

Hi there. I'm Aaron Sonnenberg. I work at Blip and live in Greenpoint. You can find me on flickr, twitter or e-mail me at: aaron/at/blip/dot/com

This is home, and this is everything.

Building the place to discover the best in original web series
bliptv:
Today we launched the new blip.tv destination site. The purpose of the new site is to give original web series a home on the Internet. That’s because, up until now, there hasn’t been a good site dedicated to the discovery of original web series.

Original web series are a product. They compete for people’s attention just like anything else. They must be marketed. Many original web series are art. But even art must be marketed. Art must be presented in a beautiful environment that is curated, that guides you to the good stuff, and that highlights the best of every piece.

Blip’s fifty people have spent the last year building a site that showcases original web series the way they deserve to be showcased. We’ve worked to build a clean, well-designed, curated and beautiful environment that draws viewers in and fills producers with a sense of pride.

We hope that we have achieved that goal. Every part of the new destination site is a product of the research we have done and the inspiration of our team. We couldn’t be prouder of the result. We believe that the experience speaks for itself. And, of course, we should note the obvious: this is just the beginning. New tweaks, improvements and patches will be released every three weeks from now on.

If you’re into it you may want to check out some of the news about the launch from TechCrunch (the TechCrunch article includes an exclusive video interview about the new site), Advertising Age, PC Magazine, Alley Insider and NewTeeVee.

Here’s some more information about the new site:
- The entire site is curated by humans. Viewers and potential viewers told us that they found web video “chaotic.” They said that they found algorithmic recommendations “useless.” If you’re watching Ski the Himalayas we believe that only a human can know which other series would match your taste and mood. An algorithm would simply recommend more skiing videos.
- We’re featuring the top 1,800 original web series. This is because viewers and potential viewers want to be shown “the best” and want a “curated” experience. Series that aren’t featured on the destination site can still use the dashboard and distribute to our entire network. If your series is not featured on the destination site but you believe it should be please contact us. We’ll work with you to get it to the point where we’ll all be proud to have it there.
- We’ve introduced the Show Poster. The Show Poster is just like a movie poster, only it’s for web series. During our research we learned that viewers really want to see episode thumbnails. We want people to know that the episodes are part of a series. The Show Poster does that, and ensures that the series’ identity follows its episodes across the entire site.
- The site is organized into sixteen categories. We’ve carefully designed these categories to give everyone something good to watch, whatever mood they may be in. Find hilarious comedies in Comedy, engaging dramas in Drama, or art and culture series in Learning. Find a great yoga show in Health & Fitness or check out the latest muscle cars in Sports & Cars. You can also watch categories linearly — just like a television channel.
- Show pages are beautiful. Check out the show pages for Aidan 5, Ski the Himalayas, Vernissage TV and Transylvania Television. These pages make the point that these series are high quality and produced by professionals.
- We’ve invested in performance. We’ve invested thousands of man hours in building a site that’s not only beautiful, but is fast too. We’ve done a ton of performance and load testing and optimized every line of code to make sure that pages load quickly and video plays almost instantly.
This new destination site is an important part of what we’re doing to build the original web series industry. But the destination site is only a part of what we do. Our dashboard and distribution network have already driven three billion views, and are now generating a billion views every three months. Our advertising services have led to some producers making half a million dollars last year, and we believe that some will make more than a million dollars this year.

Blip.tv now offers producer products, consumer products and advertiser products. We believe that a full suite of products is necessary to build a sustainable ecosystem for original web series. We will continue to invest in all aspects of the experience around original web series.

In the meantime we hope that you discover a new show by heading to the new blip.tv. Let us know what you like — or don’t like. For a year we’ve been working to solve one question: how do we make it easy for people to discover the best in original web series. If you find a new series you like on the site, we’ve done our job.
Very thankful that I get to be work with all the talented, hard working, down to earth, fun people here at blip.
- #blip.tv
- #webseries
17 May 2011 / 141 notes